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US Hispanics over-index non-Hispanic Whites in usage and engagement with social media. More than three-quarters (77%) of US Hispanics say they’ve used social sites in the past 30 days. That’s compared with 38% of non-Hispanic Whites who spend over an hour with social media daily.

The most popular platforms among US Hispanics revolve around communication (e.g. Facebook), images (e.g. Instagram), and video (e.g. YouTube). In the last 30 days, 66% of US Hispanics aged 18 and older have used Facebook (over-indexing non-Hispanic Whites by 5%).

US Hispanics are active participants on social platforms, rather than passive consumers. The demographic group shares content on social platforms five times more often than do non-Hispanic Whites.

Here are a few additional consumption insights:

Because the US Hispanic market is relatively young, its ROI will only improve over time.

Advertisers should look to mobile to reach the growing group. US Hispanics will have accounted for more than half of all population growth in the US between 2016 and 2020 — and up to 80% of all growth by 2040-45.

As part of our societies, Brands should have their opinions about social issues and they should stand by them.

Consumers develop relationships with their favorite, and not so very favorite, brands like they do with people. In fact, it is very common for expert marketers to “humanize” their brands, so consumers can engage with them in a more “natural” way. If Brands have these “human” attributes, I wonder if they should also have “human opinions”. I think they should, and they should stand by those opinions.

I found a very interesting article from Felix Ritcher, Data Journalist, about Brands and the things they should take a stand for. I want to share it with you.

BUYING BEHAVIOR

Should Brands Take a Stand?

Oct 24, 2018 When Nike unveiled an ad campaign starring Colin Kaepernick, the face of the athlete protests against racial injustice in the United States, in September, it seemed like there were only two possible reactions. People either applauded Nike for taking a stand and backing Kaepernick who has yet to find a new team in the NFL after opting out of his contract with the San Francisco 49ers in March 2017, or they lambasted Nike for supporting someone who, in their eyes, had disrespected the American flag and U.S. military personnel around the world by kneeling in protest during the national anthem. Some even went as far as burning their Nike merchandise, not without sharing videos of it on social media of course, and vowing never to buy a Nike product again.

While those reactions might seem extreme, it’s important to understand that many people consider brands an important way of expressing themselves and their core beliefs. So while some proudly wore their Nike gear in the wake of the Kaepernick affair, expressing their support of Kaepernick’s cause, i.e. the fight against racial inequality and oppression, others expressed the love for their country by criticizing what they felt was disrespectful of the people fighting for it.

According to a recent report published by Edelman, it is more important (and sensitive) than ever for brands to take a stand. Based on a survey of 8,000 consumers across eight markets, Edelman found that more and more people are what they define as belief-driven buyers, i.e. consumers whose buying behavior is influenced by their beliefs to a certain degree. Across all markets, 64 percent of the respondents were identified as belief-driven buyers in 2018, up from just 51 percent in 2017. Interestingly, the share of belief-driven buyers is highest in China at 78 percent, while it’s surprisingly low at 59 percent in the U.S.

Music streamers should pay more attention to U.S, Hispanic’s taste in music since this segment of the population is one of the heaviest users of this technology as it is shown in several studies in the field. As an expert in radio content and an avid student of everything US Hispanic related, I want to share some recent and some not-very-recent data about the “Latino” usage of Music Streaming.

The most recent data comes from the blog post: Marketing Trends in a New Multicultural Society: Hispanic Millennials: Implications for Marketing by Dr. Felipe Korzenny, Director Emeritus of the Center for Hispanic Marketing Communication at Florida State University and author of “Hispanic Marketing: Connecting with the new Latino Consumer”. Here the author makes clear, in a very pedagogical way, that not all Latinos are created equal. Even though they might have the same “US Hispanic” label and some marketers have mistakenly put them in the same market cluster, there are some big differences among them that actually turn them into a very heterogeneous population segment.

The second piece of not-so-very recent knowledge comes from a study by PricewaterhouseCoopers about Hispanics and Mobile technology published in 2014. Mi Movil: Hispanic consumers embrace mobile technology. Some of the key findings in this study show how Hispanics usage of mobile streaming technology for video and music surpass the one of Non-Hispanics by almost 20 % in some cases.

Adding those two pieces of knowledge to the fact that recent data from Pandora (The biggest music streamer in users quantity) tells that at least 25% of its users are Latinos, I have 3 recommendations for every Music Streamer if they want to have success by reaching Hispanics in the right way:

Understand them: Not all latinos are the same. Some like tropical music, some like Mexican Music and some even like Rock and Roll.

Don’t mixed them up: Not because the music is in Spanish means they are going to like it all. Some Hispanics don’t like Mexican Music and some even hate Tropical rhythms.

Try English for newer generations: Some younger Hispanics prefer English as their entertainment language, and sometimes they can enjoy having two types of language in one same “playlist”.

Reaching Hispanics has become into a challenge and a key objective of every major Music Streaming Service. But not all Spanish language content will work and in order to develop a successful strategy, Streamers should really satisfy Latino’s changing music tastes.

There is no such a thing as a better platform. Each social platform has its own perks and their effectiveness depend on the target you want to reach, the message you want to convey and the conversation you, as marketer, want to initiate. In fact, this difference in platforms is key in the understanding of the kind of content and messages sent through each platform. Marshall McLuhan once said “The medium is the message”; Originally thought for analog media, this great piece of learning can guide us in the way we produce content for each platform. Each social media platform has its own characteristics, and these characteristics will define the nature of the content in each platform. Not all content is created equal for each platform.

Amazing stats from thinkwithgoogle.com: 66% of U.S. Hispanics say they pay attention to online ads—almost 20 percentage points more than the general online population.

If you want to reach out to US Hispanics Millennials try using their mobile phones. There are two major trends defining digital marketing as we know it: Convergence and mobility. The fact that mobile gadgets have turned into such powerful devices, make marketers rethink the role of marketing and communication among and from consumers. Brands now need to stay more ubiquitous than ever within that mobile environment by being relevant with the right content designed for each platform. This OMNIPRESENT and RELEVANT content will make the user stay engaged with the brand experience. Only after the user or customer is engaged with the brand and its content, we, as marketing specialists, can think of the new frontier of Digital Marketing: Total customization of the Brand Experience.

If you want more info on how to connect with US Hispanics go to: https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/articles/new-research-shows-how-to-connect-with-digital-hispanics-online.html

That’s the question I asked to some of my fellow students at the Marketing Communication Seminar at FSU.

And here some of the answers

Yes, it is so cool to be Hispanic. I cannot help but be very intrigued by the ability to see someone who is, as mentioned in a past post, coveted by marketing companies. Being viewed as an asset is always a good feeling. The Hispanic community is also based on so many good values, that it is difficult to not be impressed by how loyally they are practiced while still adopting cultural customs from being in the United States. Her and her family value things that are very important and can easily be lost in this age, such as trust, loyalty, family and other strong relationships.

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I definitely think it has become more “cool” than it used to, to be Hispanic. Our society (in my opinion) has always been very judgmental of others, especially those that are the slightest bit different from us. Even ten years ago, our society was not as acceptable of other races and ethnicities as we are today. I still think we have a lot of progress to make, but it is a process that has to be taken one step at a time. I have also noticed that even though Hispanics are becoming more accustomed to our society and culture, they still find a way to make it known that they take pride in their culture. Hispanics have always been proud of their culture, even when Americans were not as accepting of different cultures. I think it says a lot about a culture who can adopt things about another culture, but find a way to stay true to themselves, and Hispanics definitely do that.

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I’m Hispanic and I can tell you that it’s beyond cool. How would you feel if thousands of companies are trying to reach you by creating “recipes” based on how their specific products or services appeal only to your cultural needs? Pretty good, I can tell you that. We are like the popular kids in school that everybody wants to be involved with. Thousands of companies are willing to do almost anything just to grab our attention and make us take an interest in whatever they are trying to sell. The Hispanic Market is growing so big that these companies know that they need us in order to be successful or at least way more successful. We are the key to a very profitable business.

When defining the Internet as the technology of liberation for US Hispanic (as explained by Felipe Korzenny in his book Hispanic Marketing) , it is important to see that such an artifact has two sides for the same coin. Removing the boundaries and the mediators in the communication process can be very liberating in granting unlimited access to all kinds of goods and services. But this liberated status comes with a price

Marshall McLuhan, one of the greatest Media and Technology philosophers of our time, said in an interview that “all media, from the phonetic alphabet to the computer, are extensions of a man (…) such an extension is an intensification of an organ, sense or function and whenever it takes place, the central nervous system appears to institute a self-protective numbing of the affected area, insulating and anesthetizing it from conscious awareness of what’s happening to it.” (Norden, E. p. 124)

The Internet can be very liberating but it can also put the mind under a lot of stress. This amount of liberty can produce levels of anxiety when providing the user with so many options and that is the price we must pay for having that freedom to choose. Having such an access to so many options can be very liberating but it also takes some responsibility. The responsibility of actually choosing and being an active part of the whole process and the society.